Developing a Mental Health Transition Service for 17-25 year olds consultation
Young people either don’t know or feel unable to express their needs. If we don’t equip
our young people with the language and skills that they need then we will not be able to
find a way out of the crisis we now have.
What we did
Currently mental health services for children and young people such, as the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), end at 18 years of age when young people start using adult services.
However, research has shown that the way mental health services are often structured can leave gaps that young people could fall through as they undergo the transition from CAMHS to AMHS.
The issues explored in this consultation will affect a large proportion of our community as around 2,984 young people aged between 5 and 16 years.
Our consultation survey was devised to contribute to Wandsworth Council's consultation on the topic. We wanted to hear from service users, carers, providers and other interested stakeholders to understand the challenges for young people transitioning from CAMHS to AMHS in Wandsworth.
The survey was open in 2017 and was advertised on our website, social media and in our newsletter. It was also circulated to our network of local contacts. It was available to complete online and was taken to outreach events.
Key Findings
Respondents identified challenges relating to waiting times, high clinical thresholds and inadequate levels of support.
Other key points for consideration are summarised below:
A Person-Centred Pathway
- There was a wide range of views from a variety of stakeholders highlighting the need for a holistic and personalised pathway.
- An overriding theme relates to understanding a young person’s individual need, and responding appropriately.
- Individualised assessments and support could apply to prevention and early intervention, age of discharge and transition and tailoring would then also incorporate consideration of specific needs, such as learning difficulties or disabilities, and a variation in how and when an individual might progress along their journey.
- To better support young people making the transition, it will be important to include them in the process and ensure continuous communication. Involving relevant people in a young person’s life where appropriate, such as schools and family, could also be important.
Meaningful cross-system working
- Recognition of personal needs includes the interactive influence of many aspects of a person’s life, which can have an effect on or be affected by mental ill health.
- It is important that this recognition of a person’s whole world is addressed by the whole system.
- Better coordinating strategies to improve mental health across departments could support young people to live as independently as possible and could support recovery from mental distress.
- A number of responses revealed the importance of housing, employment, financial stability and access to education as indicators of mental health.
Downloads
You can read the report on Healthwatch Wandsworth’s consultation about transitions from child and adolescent mental health services to adult services.
If you need this report in a different format, please e-mail
enquiries@healthwatchwandsworth.co.uk or call 020 8516 7767
